Player grades: Warriors vs. Wolves

Feb 2, 2023 - 5:48 AM

Well, that one’s gonna hurt for a while. Hopefully the Golden State Warriors can bounce back against the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night, because their Wednesday game against the Minnesota Timberwolves stings.

The Dubs played very well for three quarters, and held a 14-point lead early in the fourth quarter. Playing one of the hottest teams in the league, on the road, they seemed in control. And then their offense got sloppier than sloppy, their defense forgot how to contain former teammate D’Angelo Russell, and the game went to overtime. There, Russell quickly fouled out, which gave the Warriors a distinct advantage.

They blew that advantage, and lost 119-114.

So now let’s grade the players. As always, grades are based on my expectations for each player, with a “B” representing the average play for that player.

Note: True-shooting percentage (TS) is a scoring efficiency metric that accounts for threes and free throws. Entering Wednesday’s games, league average TS was 57.9%.

Draymond Green

39 minutes, 10 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 5 turnovers, 3 fouls, 5-for-10 shooting, 0-for-3 threes, 50.0% TS, -6

A very weird thing happened in this game: Green and Steph Curry weren’t on the same page. They had multiple plays where they were just on completely different pages, and, since their relationship is usually Green passing to Curry, it resulted in a ton of turnovers for Dray.

I’m willing to give him a slight pass on some of the turnovers, because their disconnect felt more like Curry’s doing than Dray’s. There were a few times where Green passed the ball to a place that he expected Curry to go to, and Curry never went there.

It was weird to see.

Either way, it was a below-average game on offense for Dray, but I still thought he was one of the team’s better players. They played some pretty solid road defense, which he was at the front of, and he rebounded like it was going out of style.

Grade: B

Post-game bonus: Led the team in rebounds.

Andrew Wiggins

35 minutes, 16 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 turnovers, 2 fouls, 7-for-13 shooting, 1-for-4 threes, 1-for-2 free throws, 57.6% TS, -8

Offensively this was a step in the right direction for Wiggins, though he still hasn’t had a game scoring with above league average efficiency since his superstar performance against the Houston Rockets on December 3, when he suffered his adductor injury.

Wiggins notably wasn’t on the court in the closing minutes of regulation ... at least not until inside of the final minute. He’s looking healthier and more athletic, but still not making a big impact.

Props to him for the seven rebounds. He hadn’t had more than five boards in his last 12 games.

Grade: B-

Steph Curry

43 minutes, 29 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 4 turnovers, 5 fouls, 8-for-21 shooting, 5-for-12 threes, 8-for-9 free throws, 58.1% TS, -5

For most players, this would be one of their best games of the year. But for Curry we’re left feeling pretty disappointed. He was dynamic early on, with circus shots, aggression, and threes that left your jaw on the ground.

But as the game went on he got sloppier and sloppier and sloppier. He miscommunicated with Green on multiple occasions, had some inexcusable turnovers late, and took a not very good shot to try and win the game at the end of regulation. As the offense started to go, his defense suffered as he started to reach.

He just seemed discombobulated. I’ll be curious to see whether Kerr gives him Thursday’s game off or not. Some rest could do him good ... but then again, getting back on the horse and destroying everyone could, too.

Grade: C

Post-game bonus: Led the team in points.

Klay Thompson

40 minutes, 14 points, 6 rebounds, 1 steal, 2 turnovers, 1 foul, 3-for-13 shooting, 2-for-7 threes, 6-for-6 free throws, 44.8% TS, +2

Pretty rough game from Klay, though I want to point out how much he’s been stepping up on the glass lately. He just never had any sort of rhythm in this game, though he did a good job of getting to the free throw line.

Grade: D+

Jordan Poole

32 minutes, 18 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 turnovers, 3 fouls, 4-for-13 shooting, 1-for-5 threes, 9-for-10 free throws, 51.7% TS, -9

Poole’s energy was huge in this game. He had a few key plays of offensive aggression that really acted as a spark plug. He flew to the lane for rebounds and to keep balls alive, and was an aggressive passer. I thought his defense was pretty solid.

His shot selection and making was not very good, unfortunately. But I liked the rest of his game.

Grade: B-

Post-game bonus: Tied for the team lead in assists, worst plus/minus on the team.

Jonathan Kuminga

15 minutes, 10 points, 3 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover, 4 fouls, 4-for-8 shooting, 1-for-2 threes, 1-for-2 free throws, 56.3% TS, -4

Kuminga’s really had an issue fouling lately ... he has 29 of them in his last seven games. He brought good energy in this game, but I thought was a little bit out of control. Still head and shoulders above where he was earlier in the season, but wasn’t much of an impact player in this one.

Grade: B-

Kevon Looney

28 minutes, 10 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks, 4 fouls, 4-for-5 shooting, 2-for-2 free throws, 85.0% TS, +12

Looney may have moved to the bench, but it hasn’t done anything to decrease his impact on the game. With Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns sidelined, Looney absolutely ate in this game, in every phase. And as a result, he was on the court as part of the closing lineup, which was great to see.

Grade: A

Post-game bonus: Led the team in plus/minus.

Anthony Lamb

7 minutes, 0 points, 1 assist, 1 foul, 0-for-1 shooting, 0-for-1 threes, 0.0% TS, 0 plus/minus

Lamb is getting very close to the end of his two-way contract days ... but he also seems to be getting phased out of the rotation a little bit. His minutes have really been dwindling. At some point the Warriors need to either bump them up, or incorporate other players into the rotation, because it is too early in the season to only be playing a few players.

Anyway, Lamb looked lost in his limited minutes.

Grade: C-

Donte DiVincenzo

25 minutes, 7 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 1 foul, 3-for-7 shooting, 1-for-4 threes, 50.0% TS, -7

DDV was pretty solid, albeit not spectacular, in pretty much ever phase of the game. He’s such an awesome bench player, and it looks amazing when the Warriors play well, and a little uninspiring when they don’t.

Grade: B

Post-game bonus: Tied for the team lead in assists.

Wednesday’s DNPs: Patrick Baldwin Jr., JaMychal Green, Moses Moody, James Wiseman

Wednesday’s inactives: Andre Iguodala, Ty Jerome, Ryan Rollins