Well, the Golden State Warriors lost again. Stop me if you’ve heard that before. This time, the shoe was on the other foot, as it was the Dubs trying to overcome a fourth-quarter deficit, instead of blowing a fourth-quarter lead. But it fell a point short … and a foot long, as Jimmy Butler III’s go-ahead bucket in the final seconds missed everything, and they lost to the LA Clippers 103-102.
Let’s grade the players who couldn’t find a W against a struggling Clippers team that was playing without James Harden. 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 Monday’s games, league-average TS was 58.3%.
Jimmy Butler III
33 minutes, 24 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 steals, 1 block, 2 turnovers, 7-for-16 shooting, 1-for-4 threes, 9-for-11 free throws, 57.6% TS, +3
The Warriors had a fantastic defensive game against Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers, and Butler was the second-biggest reason for that (well, third-biggest reason, if you include the coaching staff). The four steals accurately paint a picture of a player who locked in on defense 60 feet from the hoop on nearly every possession, and made life miserable anytime the person he was guarding had the ball.
Offensively, it was a more good than great game, but his ability to get to the line in ugly games like this one is absolutely huge. He would have gotten a perfect score had he made the game-winning shot, but alas.
Grade: A-
***Post-game bonus:***Led the team in rebounds.
Draymond Green
32 minutes, 6 points, 5 rebounds, 12 assists, 2 steals, 1 turnover, 1 foul, 2-for-8 shooting, 0-for-6 threes, 2-for-2 free throws, 33.8% TS, +15
Even as someone who has always been higher on Green’s contribution than the general public, I can admit that it’s been a very rough stretch for him. The simple fact of the matter is, over the last month or so, the Warriors have generally looked better when Green is off the court than when he’s on it.
My goodness was that not at all the case on Monday. Not even close to the case. The best version of the Warriors was when Green was on the court, and his plus/minus paints a pretty honest picture in this game: the Warriors outscored the Clippers by 15 points in his 31 minutes and 57 seconds, and were outscored by 16 points in the 16 minutes and three seconds when he sat. This was both the best defensive game and best playmaking game that we’ve seen from Green in a long, long time. It was such a vintage Green game that I don’t care and barely even notice the donut he put up in the three-point column on a not-inconsequential number of attempts.
The Warriors need this version of Dray if they want to get where they’re going. Or anywhere near it.
Grade: A
***Post-game bonus:***Led the team in assists, best plus/minus on the team.
Quinten Post
13 minutes, 5 points, 2 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 foul, 2-for-4 shooting, 1-for-2 threes, 62.5% TS, -5
Not a bad game for Post, but not a particularly good one either. He didn’t really make an impact, positively or negatively. His play is a little erratic at the moment, as he’s kind of bouncing between really good games, really bad games, and fairly neutral games. This was a fairly neutral game.
Moses Moody
19 minutes, 4 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 steals, 1 block, 1 turnover, 2 fouls, 1-for-5 shooting, 0-for-3 threes, 2-for-2 free throws, 34.0% TS, +2
A little bit of a Jekyll and Hyde game for Moody. It was a struggle fest on offense, but a very strong showing on defense. There’s no sugar-coating the fact that Moody hasn’t been playing all that well lately. And one can’t help but wonder if it will make the Warriors a little more comfortable including him in trade discussions if they want to go big-game hunting at the deadline (Michael Porter Jr., anyone?).
If nothing else, I wonder if Steve Kerr might consider a change to the starting lineup. Moody’s minutes have been waning, and perhaps De’Anthony Melton might get a shot in the opening five.
Steph Curry
34 minutes, 27 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, 1 turnover, 6 fouls, 9-for-23 shooting, 4-for-15 threes, 5-for-5 free throws, 53.6% TS, +5
A bit of an odd Steph game. He didn’t make an impression in the first quarter, save for when he left to go to the locker room for mysterious reasons. He was awesome in the second quarter, with some truly brilliant playmaking and some great shots. He kind of disappeared in the third quarter. He had the highlights of the game late in the fourth quarter, putting the team on his back with some outrageous shots to shoot the Dubs right back into it. And then he had the worst play of the night, when he fouled Kris Dunn with 43 seconds remaining and the Warriors up by one.
It was a very bad foul, and perhaps one born out of frustration with the lack of whistle that he had gotten all night. Dunn had an offensive rebound and wasn’t going to have a clean look (it didn’t even look like he was planning on shooting). Curry took a careless swipe, leading to an easy call. It sent Dunn to the line for a pair of free throws (he made both) and, most critically, sent Curry to the bench to end his night.
Would the Warriors have won if Curry had been on the court for the final possession? We’ll never know. But I would love to find out.
In all, Curry didn’t shoot efficiently, and made some very poor decisions. He did some brilliant stuff as well, though, as we’re very accustomed to. But not his best work tonight.
Grade: C-
***Post-game bonus:***Led the team in points.
Brandin Podziemski
27 minutes, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 2-for-5 shooting, 1-for-1 threes, 1-for-2 free throws, 51.0% TS, -5
A decent game for Podz. Not a great game. But a decent game, certainly. Strong defense and some nice passes. Not bad offense but not good offense, either. Props to him for not turning the ball over (or committing a foul).
Gary Payton II
15 minutes, 14 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block, 1 foul, 7-for-10 shooting, 0-for-1 free throws, 67.0% TS, -6
Payton was a revelation in the second quarter. He was a ball of energy flying to the rim on offense, cutting and scoring and cutting and scoring some more. And he was his usual excellent self on defense, even though he was tasked with some very difficult assignments all night, including some time on Leonard, and some time matching up with the significantly-larger John Collins.
Trayce Jackson-Davis
5 minutes, 0 points, 2 rebounds, 2 fouls, 0-for-1 shooting, 0.0% TS, -7
Just a short stint for TJD in this game. It did not go well.
De’Anthony Melton
25 minutes, 5 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, 1 block, 2 turnovers, 3 fouls, 2-for-7 shooting, 1-for-2 threes, 35.7% TS, -1
As Melton shakes the rust off from more than a year on the sidelines, it becomes more and more clear how much trust Kerr has in him. This wasn’t a particularly good game for Melton, but he was still on the court in the big moments, and the team just looks far more in control when he’s out there. More turnovers than assists and more fouls than rebounds is uncharacteristic for him, though.
Will Richard
11 minutes, 0 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists, 0-for-2 shooting, 0-for-1 threes, 0.0% TS, -5
Richard didn’t do anything wrong in this game, but he had a hard time contributing much, either. With Melton able to play full minutes again, and Podziemski improving, it’s going to be hard for Richard to find too many minutes, even with Buddy Hield and Pat Spencer out of the guard rotation. It’s very clear that Kerr trusts Richard though; and equally clear that he should.
Al Horford
16 minutes, 5 points, 5 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 foul, 1-for-8 shooting, 1-for-5 threes, 2-for-2 free throws, 28.2% TS, -14
This was the opposite of Dray’s game. Horford has really been rounding into shape lately, but this was a very, very bad game for him. Very bad.
Grade: D
***Post-game bonus:***Worst plus/minus on the team.
Gui Santos
12 minutes, 6 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 foul, 2-for-3 shooting, 1-for-2 threes, 1-for-2 free throws, 77.3% TS, +13
Here’s the best way to tell the story of Santos’ game: he didn’t play at all in the first quarter, the second quarter, or the third quarter. The Warriors entered the fourth quarter trailing by 12 points and looking listless. Kerr put Santos in to start the frame. He stayed on the court until about the five minute mark. 19 seconds after being subbed out, the Warriors called timeout, and when the timeout was concluded, Santos was back on the court. He stayed in the game until the final buzzer rang. The Warriors needed his energy but they also needed his execution. He was brilliant.
I try not to call out the refs too much, because it’s easy to see when they mess up and not when they succeed. But my goodness was this a rough game for them. Curry got mauled … at one point, the national broadcast team said it was the most they’ve seen Curry on the floor all year, yet he only shot five free throws. They had a string of bad calls in the fourth, and drew Golden State’s ire when Curry wasn’t awarded continuation on a foul when he threw up a circus shot that he made (it was properly called a foul on the floor, but they didn’t blow the whistle until well after Curry had taken the shot).
But the worst came at the eight-minute mark, when they missed about as blatant of a goaltending violation as you’ll see missed in the NBA. We’ve seen this a lot lately: bad calls are made, and the other officials don’t step in to say something and correct the call. They simply need to be better than that.
Ultimately, a game doesn’t come down to the refereeing, but it’s a tough pill to swallow when a blatant missed call takes two points off the board (and adds one for your opponent, if you count Collins splitting the technical free throws when Kerr got ejected in a fit of rage over the missed call), and you end up losing by a single point.
Has anyone been able to watch the first quarter of a game on Peacock this year? If you’re in market and watching NBC Sports Bay Area, that’s great. If you’re out of market and watching on the app, it really likes to tell you the game hasn’t started until you’re well into the second quarter. I don’t know why every streaming platform the NBA touches turns to turds.
Snoop Dogg
Peacock did one thing right, though: they put Snoop Dogg on the broadcast bench for the entirety of the second half. Normally I’m against celebrity cameos in the broadcast booth, and doubly so when they last for a long time. But this was fantastic. Snoop absolutely killed it. He was comical, insightful, and didn’t hog the mic. He clearly understands basketball, but also was having so much fun. It wasn’t clear who he was rooting for (it mostly seemed the Clippers, but he was really enamored with some Warriors having success), and he understood the intensity of the moment. The highlight came when Kerr was blowing a gasket screaming at the refs following his two ejections, and Snoop — only a few feet away — kept gleefully yelling, “You in Inglewood, Steve!!!!”
The NBA is better when it embraces fun things, even when they’re silly.