It’s crazy to say, but the Golden State Warriors are on their first winning streak of the season after beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 106-101 at the Chase Center on Friday night.
It was an exciting and entertaining game in which the Dubs had their best win of the season, beating one of the top teams in the league.
Now let’s understand the game day traditions and rate the players, weighing what we expect from each player, with a “B” for their average performance.
Note: Going into Friday’s game, the league average true shooting percentage (TS) was 56.9 percent.
Draymond Green
32 minutes 2 points, 10 rebounds, 13 assists, 1 steal, 5 fouls, 1 for 5 shooting, 20.0% shooting +2
This is really the first time in a year that Green’s scoring is back to where it was in years past, you know? Dub will accept it. Because this is retro green. It was his best defensive performance of the year, overwhelmingly, and he also took a staggering 13 corners.
A crucial late-game float helped the Warriors win, but prevented Dray from becoming the fourth scoreless double-double in NBA history.
When Green defends like this, the Warriors are contenders.
Grade: A-
Post-match rewards: Leading the team in assists and leading the team in rebounds.
Andrew Wiggins
20 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block, 3 turnovers, 4 fouls in 37 minutes
Wiggins excels at this. He’s shown great defensive prowess while bouncing between All-Stars Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland, and looks strong overall.
A system-wide effective offense is exactly when the dub team asked him to leave.
Grade: A-
Post-match rewards: The worst plus-minus on the team.
Kevin Rooney
30 minutes, 7 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks, 2 turnovers, 4 fouls
The Warriors held their own against a two-center starting lineup of Cleveland’s Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, and Looney was their biggest reason for doing so. He even got off and beat them in transition!
But the most important part of his game is that he played 30 minutes and looked efficient. With James Wiseman out of the rotation and the Warriors hesitant to give Green too many small-ball 5 minutes at this time of the season, it’s huge that Looney is able to play real starting minutes without fading.
Grades: one
Post-match rewards: Tied for the team lead in rebounds.
Stephen Curry
40 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers, 4 fouls in 34 minutes
Before the game, I noticed that Curry was averaging the highest points of his career, had the highest true shooting percentage of his career, and had the lowest turnover rate of his career.
It’s safe to say that statistic will continue for at least another day.
After the game, Steve Kerr said something about me personally. An accurate, there.
“We’ve run out of adjectives to describe Stephen’s game,” Steve Kerr said.
— Madeleine Kenny (@madkenney) November 12, 2022
Curry had another great performance, scoring 18 points in the fourth quarter to give the Dubs the victory. He’s done everything from shaking opponents to turning to Cleveland’s bench on a tying 3-pointer to hitting the entire arena with his patented night-and-night moves.
He’s the best player in the NBA this year, and his numbers are video game-level.
Stephen Curry’s games this year:
33 points, 63.6% TS
34 points, 65.9% TS
33 points, 69.4% TS
21 points, 54.7% TS
33 points, 75.0% TS
31 points, 60.7% TS
32 points, 57.2% TS
23 points, 71.0% TS
39 points, 80.6% TS
47 points, 86.8% TS
40 points, 78.0% TS— Brady Klopfer (@BradyKlopferNBA) November 12, 2022
He got into a little foul trouble early and missed both free throws.when those literally The only nit to choose, you know you did it right.
Stephen Curry has done a lot of things right.
Grade: A+
Post-match rewards: Lead the team in points and plus/minus.
Klay Thompson
29 minutes 9 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 2 fouls
Klay continues to struggle with his offense and looks a long way from returning to All-Star form.
Meanwhile, the team continued to perform better when he was on the floor. His defense was pretty bad early on in this game, but he really stepped up later in the game against Mitchell.
Grade: C
Jonathan Cuminga
0 points, 2 rebounds, 2 turnovers in 4 minutes, 0 for 3 shooting, 0.0% shooting rate -1
Kuminga entered the game in the first quarter and soon struggled. His offense was very stagnant, and he forced another shot when he should have hit the hot potato. Three shots and two turnovers in four minutes was definitely not what the Warriors wanted him to do, and he didn’t play again after a brief first quarter.
On the one hand, I don’t think the Warriors have given him enough time to work through those issues. On the other hand, he was very tough on the field.
Grade: D-
Anthony Lamb
24 minutes, 10 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 fouls, 7 shots, 4 of 5, 2 shots, 71.4% shooting, +6
I’ve always been critical of Lamb, but there’s no way to criticize his game in this one. He was exactly what the doctor ordered. He moves a lot off the ball and keeps the ball flying when he catches it. He brings a bunch of energy, which works well on the defensive end.
I certainly didn’t see him replace Kuminga, Moses Moody and JaMychal Green in the rotation, and that probably won’t last forever, but it’s pretty impressive right now.
Grades: one
Donte DiVincenzo
16 minutes, 0 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists, 1 turnover, 3 fouls, 0-for-1 shooting, 1 3-pointer, 0.0% TS+3
DiVincenzo took a break after nearly three weeks without a game. This was most evident on the defensive end, where he had several serious fouls.
But I think he showed why the Warriors invested in him this offseason. Even without the stats, DiVincenzo has just helped the bench — which has been so bad all year — play functional basketball. He said on Wednesday that his goal was to help Jordan Poole keep going, and it was clear in this game that he was a big part of why Poole kept going.
That in itself is value for money.
Grade: B-
Jordan Poole
18 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 turnovers, 2 fouls in 34 minutes
Ah, here we go, JP. It’s amazing how some competent defense and Poole parties make the Warriors look like contenders again immediately.
Poole ended up getting strong numbers, but his biggest impact was keeping the offense steady when Curry was in foul trouble in the second quarter. That’s exactly what the Warriors need him to be, and after the fourth quarter, they couldn’t get him off the court.
Grades: one
Friday’s DNP: Jamie Char Green, Ty Jerome, Moses Moody, James Wiseman
Inactive Friday: Andre Iguodala