The 2022-23 Golden State Warriors week-in-review: 11/14-11/20
The Warriors go 3-1 on the week, Steve Kerr finds some workable bench units and some terrible ones, Steph Curry is a god, Klay gets hot, and assorted stats on Wiggins, JP, Looney, and much more.
Is anybody on the injury report?
Andre Iguodala has still yet to play a game, while rookie forward, Patrick Baldwin Jr., a high school phenom whose college career was derailed by injuries, also missed a few games with back soreness.
Who did the Warriors play last week?
The Warriors played the San Antonio Spurs at home, the Phoenix Suns on the road, the New York Knicks at home, and the Houston Rockets on the road.
How did the Warriors do this last week?
The Warriors went 3-1.
How did that happen?
11/14/22: The Warriors beat the Spurs, 132-95
The Warriors began their week with an emotionally satisfying thrashing of the San Antonio Spurs at the Chase Center, which brought their home record to 6-1 on the season. That game was notable because of who did not play that night — James Wiseman, who is now on a G-League assignment of at least 10 days, and Klay Thompson, who missed the backend of the Warriors’ back-to-back. Jordan Poole started at the shooting guard in Thompson’s absence and got off to a quick start, scoring 14 points in the first quarter and displaying the type of aggression the Warriors need from him.
The Warriors’ first subs of the night were JaMychal Green and Moses Moody, both of whom had received DNP’s in the previous two games. The Warriors led by four points at that point and when Steph Curry subbed out at the 2:48 mark, their lead had been trimmed to just one point. But a barrage of threes by JaMychal Green, Moses Moody, Jonathan Kuminga, and Jordan Poole in the final minutes of the period gave the Warriors a seven-point lead going into the second quarter. That late-quarter explosion of three-point shooting turned out to be prophetic; the Warriors finished the night shooting 23/45 from three, including five threes each by Poole and Anthony Lamb, as well as three shots from deep by Jonathan Kuminga.
Pretty much everything that could go well for the Warriors did against the Spurs. The Warriors managed to grow leads during their non-Steph minutes and in the final minute of the first half, Curry hit a finger roll and this ridiculous shot from deep, which gave them a 16-point lead going into the second half:
As they used to do in their glory days, the Warriors effectively put the game away during the third quarter. Steph Curry hit an early three and then was fouled shooting free throws, Jordan Poole scored 11 points in the period, and the Warriors got 5 and 6 points respectively from Jonathan Kuminga and Anthony Lamb in less than five minutes. By the end of the period, Poole had 30 points on the night and the Warriors led by 31 points.
That lead got up to over 40 points during the fourth quarter, by which point Steve Kerr finally brought in James Wiseman for garbage time minutes and what followed was depressingly familiar. In less than three minutes, the Warriors’ 41-point lead shrank to 29 as Wiseman tried (and failed) to get into his bag, clogged the paint, and got outbattled in the interior by smaller players. The Warriors’ lead was big enough that this didn’t matter in the end they finished the game with a 37-point victory, but after the game, Steve Kerr announced that Wiseman would be headed to the G-League for the foreseeable future.
11/16/22: The Warriors lose to the Suns, 119-130.
My full recap can be read here.
The good vibes of the Warriors’ blowout of the Spurs didn’t last long. After squandering a 50-point game by Steph Curry against the Phoenix Suns, the Warriors fell to 6-9 on the season and 0-8 on the road. There was a brief period of time in the early first quarter when the Warriors seemed if not in control of the game, competitive with the Suns. But foul trouble bit the Warriors and as Klay Thompson got increasingly frustrated with Devin Booker hitting tough shots on him, his defense suffered and his shot selection got increasingly erratic.
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