The Golden State Warriors capped off a phenomenal road trip on Sunday night, beating an excellent Oklahoma City Thunder squad 127-116. It wasn’t all pretty, as they tried their best to blow a 30-point lead, but a win is a win is a win. And a road win against an 8-1 team that’s a clear title contender, at the end of a very long road trip is nothing to pick nits at.
But that won’t stop me from grading the performances that made it happen. As always, grades are based on my expectations for each player, with a “B” grade representing the average performance for that player.
Note: True-shooting percentage (TS) is a scoring efficiency metric that accounts for threes and free throws. Entering Sunday’s games, league-average TS was 57.3%.
Draymond Green
30 minutes, 8 points, 4 rebounds, 11 assists, 3 turnovers, 4 fouls, 3-for-5 shooting, 2-for-3 threes, 80.0% TS, +7
Green showed off his defensive arsenal in this one, taking turns defending everyone from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to Lu Dort to Chet Holmgren. And it was an impressive defensive game from him.
But most impressive was his offense. The threes continue to fall — he’s now 14-for-31 from distance this year, after a surprising 39.5% clip last year — and he’s picking the right times to be aggressive scoring. What stood out in this game, though, was the playmaking … not just the star level of it, but the timeliness of it. Yeah, the 11 assists (part of a 35-assist night for the Dubs) were impressive, but, most importantly, they came when the Warriors needed them most, including a brilliant lob to Jonathan Kuminga (after looking off the defense in a way that would make Brock Purdy proud) that righted the ship right as the Dubs were seriously contemplating sinking.
Grade: A-
Post-game bonus: Led the team in assists.
Trayce Jackson-Davis
5 minutes, 2 points, 2 rebounds, 1-for-2 shooting, 50.0% TS, -6
Halfway through the first quarter, Holmgren went down with an injury. The Thunder, already missing Isaiah Hartenstein, were left no choice but to play small, and Steve Kerr determined that the right move was to match that. Following Holmgren’s exit, Jackson-Davis didn’t play another minute, and Kevon Looney didn’t play at all.
That said, I thought TJD played pretty darn well against Holmgren in those few minutes, holding the young star scoreless and keeping him from getting good looks.
Grade: B
Andrew Wiggins
35 minutes, 18 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, 1 block, 3 fouls, 6-for-14 shooting, 2-for-4 threes, 4-for-6 free throws, 54.1% TS, +21
Wiggins’ strong season continued with a simply tremendous game. He set the pace for the Warriors early, scoring nine of their first 19 points, and established his aggression in all areas of the game, attacking the rim on offense, attacking ball-handlers and shot-takers on defense, and attacking the glass every time the ball went up.
That aggression lasted throughout the game, as Wiggins continually set the tone. It was a level of aggression that was missing last year from his game, and it’s no coincidence that as it has returned, so has the team’s elite play.
Grade: A
Post-game bonus: Best plus/minus on the team.
Steph Curry
36 minutes, 36 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 3 turnovers, 2 fouls, 13-for-23 shooting, 7-for-13 threes, 3-for-4 free throws, 72.7% TS, +20
A superstar performance for the team’s superstar, and I’d arguably easily his best game of the year. Against the team with the best defense in the NBA by a mile (OKC has a garbage-time adjusted defensive rating of 101.0 … the Warriors are second in the league at 108.2), Curry absolutely caught fire. Sure, he had a few of his signature difficult shots, but most impressive was the regularity with which he managed to get clean looks against a defense that is so active and athletic. Admittedly Holmgren’s absence helped, but Curry’s greatness really doesn’t need to be picked apart or contextualized here.
He seemingly put the game away with a 17-point third quarter, which paced the Warriors in a dominant frame that they won 42-21. And when that didn’t actually put the game away, Curry re-entered in the fourth quarter and immediately stabilized a flailing offense, putting the tourniquet on and making sure it was a happy flight home.
Fantastic.
Grade: A
Post-game bonus: Led the team in points.
De’Anthony Melton
26 minutes, 19 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals, 4 turnovers, 2 fouls, 5-for-11 shooting, 5-for-8 threes, 4-for-6 free throws, 69.6% TS, +8
Melton got his first start since joining the Dubs, and if you need to know how it went, well … all you need to know is Steve Kerr declared after the game that Melton isn’t coming out of the starting lineup.
This was the Melton that the Warriors felt like they had stolen in free agency. He played phenomenal defense on Gilgeous-Alexander (who shot just 6-for-17 from the field with four turnovers, albeit 14 trips to the line), fit brilliantly in the offensive system, and made his threes. He showed so much toughness and aggression, leading both teams in rebounds. And while there were a few hiccups, his playmaking was substantially better than the two assists against four turnovers suggests.
I’m excited about this starting lineup.
Grade: A
Post-game bonus: Led the team in rebounds.
Jonathan Kuminga
26 minutes, 20 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, 2 turnovers, 2 fouls, 8-for-11 shooting, 2-for-4 threes, 2-for-3 free throws, 81.2% TS, +6
Kuminga has been one of the NBA’s best athletes since the day he was drafted. But in his first three years, I noticed a trend that, while both expected and understandable, was something I hoped Kuminga would reverse as he evolved as a player: Kuminga’s often dominated less-athletic teams, but struggled against teams with great athleticism.
My goodness was this game a step in the right direction. Against a team that almost always had five elite athletes on the court at the same time, Kuminga still had a dominant outing. After settling for a few threes early (and admittedly making them), Kuminga took advantage of Holmgren’s absence to repeatedly attack the basket, with and without the ball.
His evolution as a player was highlighted by one sequence (which also shows that he was even more efficient than his elite true-shooting percentage suggests): with the shot-clock about to expire and the ball surprisingly passed to him, Kuminga tossed up a Hail Mary three, and did a great job of hitting the rim. After seeing that the offensive rebound was likely to land in Buddy Hield’s hands, Kuminga starting cutting to the basket, getting the ball right back, forcefully flying to the hoop, and drawing a foul.
He did it all, with big plays on offense, defense, and on the glass.
He’ll be a bench player for a while now, with Melton entering the starting lineup, but that doesn’t make him any less important, and it probably doesn’t impact his minutes total, either. I expect that we’ll still see him in the closing lineup often, as he was on Sunday night, helping keep the Warriors from a fourth-quarter disaster.
Grade: A
Kyle Anderson
20 minutes, 6 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 2-for-6 shooting, 0-for-2 threes, 2-for-2 free throws, 43.6% TS, +7
What a blessing for Kerr and the Warriors to get to start Green, and then have Anderson waiting on the sidelines. Those are two of the best do-everything players in the NBA, and Anderson’s 6, 5, and 5 line just feels so … well … Anderson.
The threes are still a rough scene, as he’s now 6-for-24, but he’s doing everything else, and he’s doing it all so well, and so intelligently. It just feels like he never makes the wrong play or the wrong decision.
Grade: B+
Buddy Hield
21 minutes, 8 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 fouls, 3-for-8 shooting, 2-for-5 threes, 50.0% TS, +4
Hield struggled a bit with OKC’s athleticism in this game, which isn’t to say that Hield isn’t an exceptional athlete as well, just that he had a hard time dealing with the challenge that it posed from the Thunder. He had a difficult time separating for clean looks, and he got beaten enough on defense that it felt like he was constantly reaching.
He’s a streaky player, and there will be times where he’s the reason the Warriors win, and times where he doesn’t provide quite as much. Thankfully the Dubs have the depth to handle the latter, and capitalize on the former.
Grade: C-
Gary Payton II
12 minutes, 7 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 turnover, 5 fouls, 3-for-3 shooting, 1-for-2 free throws, 90.2% TS, +2
GPII isn’t getting a ton of minutes, and that’s unlikely to change, but you need only to look at his pattern of minutes to realize how valued he is by the coaching staff. He was part of the first group of subs off the bench, and when Jackson-Davis was omitted from the second half starting lineup, it was Payton who took his place.
He continues to be underrated on offense, but unfortunately his skills on both ends weren’t able to play very much in this game since he wasted little time getting into serious foul trouble.
Grade: C+
Moses Moody
11 minutes, 3 points, 1-for-4 shooting, 1-for-3 threes, 66.7% TS, -7
Moody was really a non-factor in this game; he didn’t compile any non-shooting stats, and it’s hard to remember any moments, good or bad.
But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: especially for a young player, Moody has a sensational ability to avoid making mistakes. It wasn’t a very good game for him, but he wasn’t a problem, either. He almost never is.
Grade: C-
Brandin Pod Ziemia
15 minutes, 0 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 turnover, 4 fouls, 0-for-2 shooting, 0-for-1 threes, 0.0% TS, -10
After being one of the few bright spots in Friday’s blowout loss, Podziemski was completely shut down in this game. He had a difficult time creating anything on offense, for himself or for his teammates. And on the other end of the court, the Thunder just seemed to be a step ahead of him at all times.
Podziemski has been such a bright spot during his brief Warriors tenure, so when he has games like this it’s important to remember that this is just the start of his second NBA season. The bad games coming this infrequently is remarkable, really.
But that doesn’t change the fact that it was, indeed, a bad game.
Grade: D
Post-game bonus: Worst plus/minus on the team.
Sunday’s DNPs: Kevon Looney, Gui Santos, Lindy Waters III
Sunday’s inactives: Reece Beekman, Quinten Post, Pat Spencer
